Health care decision-support firm Trustnode changes name and CEO

San Francisco-based Trustnode Inc., a five-year-old software startup that seems to be changing course, said Tuesday it's changed its company name and appointed a new president and CEO.

The new name, Navera, is effective immediately, officials said Oct. 22, and is meant to reflect the company's role "in helping individuals and their families navigate a new era of consumer-driven health care," including providing online education and decision-support products to help consumers make decisions about benefit and insurance options.

Simultaneously, Navera named a new CEO, Steve Adams, but provided no information about what happened to the prior chief executive officer.

Prior to joining Navera, Adams ran VirtuOz, a company Navera described as a provider of cloud-based virtual agents for online marketing, sales and support. He's been a chief executive at several tech concerns and also held senior roles at at Citrix Systems and Novell, the company said, after being prodded by the Business Times to explain Adams' background.

Finally, Navera said Tuesday that it has received a new funding round led by San Mateo's Emergence Capital Partners, but didn't disclose how much funding was provided.

In the spring of 2011, the company also announced a funding round, that time from the Band of Angels, but didn't disclose the amount involved, although a Trustnode spokesman said at the time that the Angels typically start investments in such companies at $300,000 and go up to $750,000.

The company's products are designed to help consumers make "well-informed" decisions, but it appears that its statements to the public and news media are designed not to provide adequate information to understand in any detail what the heck is going on.

The company sells its online products to employers, brokers, insurance carriers and health exchanges, however, not directly to consumers.